Homelander set down just outside of the now destroyed Vought lab. He immediately saw him tearing through the rubble.

"This facility is private property, Superman." Homelander said as the Kryptonian lifted a section of concrete larger than a car above his head. "What the hell happened here?"

Superman didn't even look at Homelander to address him. "Yl'geth attacked it, looking for something." Superman set the concrete down, and continued to dig through the rubble. "I fought it off, with some help from a friend of yours, no thanks to whoever set off that nuke."

Homelander caressed the small lead case where he'd stored the green rock, lost in the idea of using the mineral to bash Superman's head in. John snapped back to reality when he saw Superman uncover a practically severed leg in a pool of blood under a stainless steel table.

Not here... He thought. They'll see it here. It'll fuck everything up.

"A Nuke?" Homelander asked in disbelief. "Who the fuck sets off a nuke in the outskirts of the city, and why isn't there any fallout?"

"Yl'geth ate it." Superman said as he ripped a lighting rig off the table. "Now, do you want to help your people, or talk?"

Shit, he's right. This looks bad. Homelander snapped to Superman's side, and tore the table from the floor, revealing a trembling man in a lab coat with his left leg mostly demolished by the table's edge. Superman was taken aback by Homelander's actions, but clearly unthreatened by the man.

"He's lost a lot of blood." Homelander said. "Still alive, though."

"Not for long if we don't stop the bleeding." Superman said as he knelt down. His eyes glowed red, and the man yelled out in pain as the beams sealed his femoral artery.

"I'm sorry." Superman whispered. ""I wish I'd been here faster."

"I'll take him." Homelander said.

Superman shook his head as he took the scientist in his arms. "No. I'll handle this. You find more survivors, I'll be back soon." The Kryptonian rocketed away.

Homelander blanched at the concept of following Superman's orders, but he tried to calm himself. This is good for publicity, and it might get his guard down for later. Later.


Madelyn Stillwell exploded into Stan Edgar's office with a fury.

Edgar looked up from the five boom-mounted monitors on his desk with a bemused expression.

"I don't remember you having an appointment." He said with a smirk.

"Don't bullshit me." Stillwell said. "Homelander said there was a nuclear device at the creature's last appearance, and that the only reason the lab wasn't destroyed, along with God knows how much of the city, too, was because it ate the damn thing!"

"If it had worked, it would've been well worth it to eliminate the creature. The fact that it apparently eats thermonuclear explosions was an unknown factor."

"Sure it was." Stillwell snarked.

"It might turn into a boon, however." Edgar replied, swinging one of his monitors to face Stillwell. "Take a look at this."

It was a video of Superman and Homelander tearing through the rubble of the lab.

"This video alone gave Homelander a ten point boost." Edgar said, smugly. "Now, despite the destruction, I believe we recorded the results of the test, correct?"

"Yes," Madelyn replied. "It was a success."

"Excellent." Edgar said with a smile. "If we can engineer a team-up to send the creature off, we can get rid of Superman and give our boy a big boost, in more ways than one. This is the perfect material for a new Homelander solo film, after all. I'm thinking about getting Bryan Singer to do it once he wraps his latest G-Men movie."

Stillwell shook her head in disbelief. "Well, I'll get us in touch with Superman and tell him the good news!"


Mesmer reached for Kimiko's hand. Then, a knock sounded on the door.

"Oh, what the fuck?" Butcher whispered. "Mesmer, get rid of 'em. MM, go with him."

Mesmer pulled out his phone and opened an app. MM could only see his face, but he knew that whatever Mesmer was looking for, he hadn't seen.

Marvin drew his gun and sidled up to the doorframe as Mesmer opened the door a crack.

"Hello?" Mesmer asked the man at the door. It was a large, somewhat unassuming man with hunched shoulders in a dorky grey suit, wide-brimmed hat and horn-rimmed glasses, and a briefcase in one hand.

"Yes, is Billy Butcher here?" The man asked.

Marvin tensed up. How the hell does he know?

"Uh," Mesmer stammered. "I'm uh, not sure who you're talking about. I can uh, take a message if you want? What's your name?"

"Clark Kent." The man replied. "I think you'd better tell him I'm here." Kent said, taking a step forward. Mesmer backed up a step, and clearly started to panic.

"Look, now's not a good time-" Mesmer began, but Kent cut him off, as he tossed a plastic and metal box into Mesmer's hands. It was the doorbell intercom. Now that it wasn't on the wall, Marvin could spy something rigged up inside the box. A spy camera.

"Not a good time to tell them you were planning to sell them out to Vought?" Kent asked, raising an eyebrow. "I agree. You might want to let me in, before you make any more mistakes."

Marvin glanced around the door at Mesmer, trying to keep himself out of the sight of the man outside the house. Fuck.

"Tell Billy and his friends I have some information they'd be interested in, about that monster that's been roaming around, and Vought's connection to the disappearance of Billy's wife."

Marvin holstered his gun, and leaned around the doorframe.

"Get in here, y'all are making a scene." He whispered.

MM made Mesmer lead the way, with Kent in the middle and Marvin taking up the rear.

Butcher sprang out of his seat in a flash.

"MM, what the fuck do you think you're doin'?" Butcher demanded. "What's next, the Spanish Inquisition?"

Marvin pulled the ruined doorbell from Mesmer's hands. "Mesmer rigged a spy-cam on his doorbell." He said, tossing the electronics to Hughie.

"Holy shit." Hughie said, his brow furrowing. "We sold this at the store." He looked up at Mesmer, incredulous. "Hang on, I installed this for you!"

"I thought you'd want to know about that before anything fell into the wrong hands." Kent said. "Vought's already on your trail, you guys don't need any more heat."

"Well, ain't that a nice thought, mister...?" Billy asked, sarcastically.

"Kent. Clark Kent."

"Hang on," Hughie said, putting the doorbell to one side. "You're that guy from the church."

"Quite perceptive." Kent said, taking a seat.

"Oh, that lunatic?" Billy muttered under his breath.

"I'm a reporter," Kent continued, as if he hadn't noticed what Butcher had said. "I've been looking into the disappearance of Rebecca Butcher."

Billy regarded Kent with suspicion. "And why the hell are you doin' that?"

"Well, I read about her obituary online, and saw her grave was defaced a few days ago. I looked into her disappearance, and couldn't stop finding things that didn't add up. Why would a successful, high-earning individual employed by one of the largest companies in the world just up and vanish one day? It didn't make any sense to me."

Butcher scoffed, and sat down with a smirk. "Sounds like you haven't been a reporter very long."

Kent shrugged. "As I implied at our last encounter, I'm not exactly from around here."

"And where- Where are you from, exactly?" Hughie asked.

Kent smiled.

"Kansas."